20,000 more troops. Is it worth it? I am not sure. I am not in favor of what is taking place now. So the question becomes: How do we get out?
I am not sure. Do we just pull all our troops out and sit back and watch Iraq go into a full scale civil war? Do we not send anymore troops and try to slowly back out, while watching more soldiers that do not have the means get killed?
On the other side, do we send more troops and try to fix this mess? If that is the case we’ll need much more than just 20,000. But I do not see any democrats allowing more troops.
Here are just a few things President Bush said:
“Victory will not look like the ones our fathers and grandfathers achieved. There will be no surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship,"
"failure in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States."
Bush acknowledged mistakes in Iraq noting that U.S. forces "have done everything we have asked them to do." He said where blame lies, it rests with him, but efforts by the U.S. were in vain for two main reasons:
"There were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure neighborhoods that had been cleared of terrorists and insurgents. And there were too many restrictions on the troops we did have. Our military commanders reviewed the new Iraqi plan to ensure that it addressed these mistakes. They report that it does. They also report that this plan can work," ---Fox News
Some of the responses
“We're not going to baby sit a civil war," Sen. Barack Obama
"Tonight President Bush acknowledged what most Americans know — we are not winning in Iraq ... indeed the challenge is grave and deteriorating," Durbin said. "Twenty thousand American soldiers are too few to end this civil war in Iraq and too many American lives to risk on top of those we've already lost.", Dick Durbin Senate Majority Whip
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14 comments:
Failure in Iraq would not only bad for us. More importantly, it's bad for Iraq.
This is what happens when you go in like a cowboy and pick a fight when the rest of the world warns you not to do it. Now we need major help and the rest of the world is sitting back thinking We told you so.
We need to go to the UN with our hat in our hand and try to iron out a multi-nation plan for long-term success in Iraq. We've gotten ourselves in a mess that we can't get out of and it's time we man up and ask for help. The longer our troops are on the ground in Iraq, the longer we postpone peace.
By the way, Kenny. I want to email you about the pictures you post to your blog.
Just don't even get me started. He admitted it was a mistake. How many more people have to die for his mistake?
Can I get my votes back?
I think the problem is how do we get out? If we do not send more in we are leaving it worse than it was before. If we leave now, the outcry will be even worse. But how do we make the situation better?
I think Jason is right--we have to go to the UN. Bush's comments about this being a "bloody and violent year" just have me sick.
My favorite new oxymoron: Bush war strategy.
Well...As long as we fight in Iraq it will be bloody. I don't know that him being upfront should upset us.
Again the question was HOW? How do we get out? If we leave now this year will be much more bloody with the Civil War in Iraq.
I don't know if the U.N. will do anything, they haven't in the past.
some of the problem is that we hamstring ourselves with all these 'engagement rules' where are guys are taking fire and have to sit there and ask some pencil pusher if we can fire back. also it doesn't help having bleeding hearts over there raising cain about 'cruelty' in war. Wake up people "war is all hell" there is no nice part of it. If are guys get rpg'd or ied'd then we need to let them retaliate against those we know are the ones who were responsible.
The part I don't like is that we are imbedding these 20,000 with Iraqi police and they will be sleeping in the areas they patrol. An Iraqi is an Iraqi and I wouldn't trust them not to turn on me because of some sunni/shiite issue that happened earlier that day.
If we are going to get out then we need to be more agressive and crush the insurgency in these towns and set up STRONG securtiy to keep them from retaking areas and having us die all over again to retake the city ala Fallujah.
The UN is part of the problem. Koffi needs to take a hike and France and Italy need to go with him. Particularly Italy, who whinned the most about Hussein being hanged - "he didn't get a fair trial" " this isn't right" -- EXCUSE ME what trial did Mussolini get or was I just imagining that you raided his house, slit his families throats infront of him, killed him and strung him up by a gaff hook in the town square. A trial not fair? Shut up!
Jon: For most part I agree. Only thing I'd say is that if we don't trust the Iraqi police. WHY ARE WE THERE?
The only way there's going to be peace is if there's a multi-nation coalition. Our presence is just egging on more violence.
I agree, we can't just cut and run. It's not as simple as "Bring the boys home." We've gotten ourselves in a mess, but it would be unforgivably irresponsible to pull out now. It would completely dishonor those who have already died for this cause.
I disagree with the idea that "an Iraqi is an Iraqi". An Iraqi is an individual created in God's image, same as you and me. And over 100,000 innocent Iraqis (men, women, children) have died as a result of this war. We all should pray that it ends as quickly as possible.
Kenny, your post reminded me of a song by David Wilcox, called "You Never See It Coming Anymore." He talks about how there are no more victory ceremonies or parades, etc. Its a pretty nice song, and goes along with Pres Bush's comments.
I agree with comments made already. We should have learned from Nam that allowing politicians to fight a war is a bad idea. Let the generals do it. They can win. Politicians can't.
Let's finish off the insurgency, and get out.
I wish we could kick the news out of the country for just a few weeks and then check back. I'd bet that the war would be over.
If your car is in the shop for repairs and the mechanic calls to say "Mr. Simpson, there is more damage than we anticipated and the repair will cost nearly twice as much as the estimate we gave you", what do you do? Give away the car? Have it towed to your yard? Pay the extra, with regret, and move ahead? The president has never said that invading Iraq was a mistake only that mistakes have been made implementing our strategies. Most of those mistakes seem to involve not securing the borders against Iranians entering the country to continue the cowardly placement of IED's and convincing some star-struck kid with nothing to his name to strap a bomb to himself as a means to great glory. If we cut and run now, Iran will fill the void and control twice as much of the world's supply of oil overnight. Picture a USA where gas is $6.13 per gallon and we are afraid to go to a stadium to watch Florida whip OSU because there are regular suicide bombings wherever a crowd gathers. We ARE winning as long as the battle is not brought to our territory and there IS a democracy in Iraq today--just an extremely poor and fragile one because they have never relied on anything except the belief that the gang with the most fire-power wins. If we allow these small groups to claim any type of victory over the US military we will begin to see waves of terrorists sweeping over our borders. And a 1000 mile fence will hardly be a speed bump. We should maintain a semblence of order in the country until the Iraqi's grow a spine and the flow from Iran is stopped.
Roxy: Good points. I would point out though that there were several other countries that "harbored terrorists" and we have not gone after them.
I do like the point about not being able to leave now though. We have to finish what we started, if only because it would be unimaginable to leave now and watch what would happen.
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